Bulgaria bans 2 Russian citizens from entering EU

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security said Monday that it has banned two Russian citizens from entering the European Union for five years on the grounds of "espionage.”

The agency said in a statement that 39-year-old Vladimir Nikolaevich Gorochkin and 37-year-old Tatyana Anatoliyevna Gorochkina presented themselves as Bulgarian nationals.

Gorochkin and Gorochkina are Russian Foreign Intelligence Service operatives who "posed a threat to national security,” it said.

The two had resided in Bulgaria for a while and tried to obtain Bulgarian citizenship and they intended to spy on various European countries and collect intelligence for Russia by using their Bulgarian identities.

In September last year, Bulgaria deported the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia and two Belarusian priests on similar grounds.